Lewis Hamilton blames Ferrari change behind disastrous Qualifying in China
Lewis Hamilton believes that Ferrari's minor changes ahead of the Chinese GP Qualifying caused him difficulties in achieving Pole.
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Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari garage (via Scuderia Ferrari)
Ferrari seemed extremely competitive heading into the Chinese GP weekend. Lewis Hamilton dominantly won the Sprint Race and was on par with the rivals. However, the Qualifying session for the main race was an unpleasant surprise for the team as neither Charles Leclerc nor Hamilton could achieve a front-row start. The Briton blames Ferrari’s ‘small changes’ on the challenger for the immediate downfall in performance.
Lewis Hamilton clinched the Pole Position for the Sprint Race of the Chinese GP and looked very competitive at the forefront. The Briton maintained the lead with ease and won the Sprint Race after leading all the lap against Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri right behind him. As a result, everyone expected Hamilton to compete for a front-row start if not Pole Position for the main race on Sunday.
As depicted by the results, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc could only manage a P5 and P6 start for the Chinese GP respectively. Speaking upon the immediate turnaround of results from the morning session, Hamilton revealed that Ferrari made some small changes to the car. The Briton believed that these changes put the car on a ‘knife’s edge’. Moreover, the windy conditions in and around the Shanghai International Circuit made the challenger trickier to drive effectively making it harder to string good laps together.
We started really optimistically naturally, but the we made a couple small changes and it put the car on a knife’s edge. I think the wind picked up a little bit as well so the car was trickier to driver, harder to put laps together.
Lewis Hamilton told in a post-session conference.
Hamilton laid out Ferrari’s ambitions to achieve a balanced performance from the car without any issues. The minor updates turned out to be problematic as they did not achieve the desired result during the Qualifying session. The 40-year-old pointed out that after implementing the updates, the car became ‘overbalanced’ at the high-speed areas of the circuit. Therefore, the Briton hopes for the Scuderia to create a car that he could ‘rely on’ and get up to speed from the get-go.
You want a car that’s balanced, at the moment from one corner to the next the car has a different balance. As I said, we made the change and all of a sudden high speed was overbalanced. You just want a car that you can rely on.
Lewis Hamilton added.
Lewis Hamilton accepts his fast lap ‘wasn’t the cleanest’ towards the end of Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton’s performance throughout all the sessions of the Qualifying was decent. The Briton still couldn’t remain at the top of his game and deliver results similar to his performance in the Sprint sessions. Charles Leclerc suffered from a similar fate and could not contend for achieving a front-row start for the Chinese GP. Hamilton accepted his shortcomings in the Qualifying session and highlighted how he could have performed better.
Hamilton reiterated that Ferrari made some changes to the chassis to rectify some minor problems found in the previous sessions. The Briton insisted that the car became snappy to control as even the winds picked up around the circuit. The seven-time champion didn’t hesitate to accept that he couldn’t score the ‘cleanest lap’ towards the end that could have helped him move up the pecking order. The 40-year-old expected to remain a couple of tenths further up the order had he not committed the mistakes in Qualifying.
We made a couple of changes to the car just to rectify some of the some problems we had. I don’t know if it’s the wind, but the car become quite snappy. The lap wasn’t the cleanest at the end, and I probably should have been a couple tenths further up.
Lewis Hamilton noted.
Fred Vasseur labels Chinese GP Qualifying session as ‘very strange’ for Ferrari
Fred Vasseur resonated with Lewis Hamilton’s thought process and believed that the Qualifying session was unexpected for Ferrari. Despite scoring great results heading into the Chinese weekend, they couldn’t quite keep up with them. Vasseur revealed that while the Scuderia faced multiple struggles, the rival teams suffered from a similar fate and couldn’t keep up with performances.
Vasseur reckoned that the Qualifying session was ‘very strange’ for not only Ferrari but all the other teams. The Frenchman pointed out that understanding the pace between two cars of the same team or even the rivals was difficult in the Qualifying. However, the 56-year-old remained confident as Hamilton did not qualify too far away from the dominant McLarens. Hence, the Team Principal expects the Chinese GP to remain a matter of ‘consistency’ rather than starting grid positions for the drivers.
It was a very strange quali with up and down for everybody. Between the cars in the same team, between the teams, between the sessions… very difficult to understand. But we finished not that far away from the McLaren. I think It’ll be more a matter of consistency tomorrow in the race rather than grid position.
Fred Vassuer said in a post-qualifying interview.
Ferrari still remains extremely strong in the mid-speed sectors of the Shanghai International Circuit. Hamilton has already started with his positive performances with the team after scoring his maiden Sprint Win with them. Therefore, time will tell about how the main race turns out for the Italian constructor following their dominant start to the week. Leclerc also prepares for a massive battle against his British counterpart at the Chinese GP.
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